Temporary West Coast franchise 'to be awarded to Virgin tomorrow'

Virgin Rail, the train company partly owned by Sir Richard Branson, is
expected to be allowed to temporarily carry on running trains on the West
Coast Main Line under Government plans due to be announced tomorrow.

2:56PM GMT 05 Dec 2012

The company has run the line, which takes passengers from London to Scotland, since 1997.

But in August, the Department for Transport announced that a new 13-year West Coast franchise had been awarded not to Virgin but to FirstGroup, one of its rivals.

However the department was forced to abandon the bidding process after Sir Richard mounted a legal challenge, calling the decision "insane".

Three department officials were suspended and negotiations began to investigate whether Virgin could run the line for between nine and 13 months before a longer franchise could be offered.

The details and length of the agreement are expected to be announced tomorrow and it is thought that Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport Secretary, could use the opportunity to publish the independent report into the abandoned bidding process.

Mr McLoughlin had appointed businessman Sam Laidlaw to produce the report.

After producing damning initial findings, which listed failings by the department, Mr Laidlaw presented his full report to the department last week.

But with one of the suspended department officials, Kate Mingay, mounting a legal challenge to her suspension, Mr McLoughlin announced that the report would not be published until this week.

Mr Laidlaw had been due to appear before the House of Commons Transport Committee this week, but MPs will now hear his evidence on December 18. The committee's chairman, Louise Ellman, criticised the department over the delay.

FirstGroup had been due to take over the West Coast line on December 9.

Following the franchise collapse, the RMT transport union had been pressing for the DfT to oversee the running of the West Coast line in the public sector, as is the case, for now, with the East Coast line.